​Music is universally appreciated. It serves as a form of escape, a moment of relaxation, even meditation. Rest assured, it is a form of art that touches many people. Much goes into the production, whether the songs are thoroughly conceptual or just senseless fun. In either case, the production of the music will try to match the “ambiance” of the artist album and use it as a gimmick for their concerts, or exposure, often used to divide one album from their previous one. A good portion of this “ambiance” goes into the booklets or casing of the music. Many musicians would use booklets or covers as a way to label those involved in the project, provide lyrics and to protect the music. Other musicians would use these booklets to their fullest advantage and incorporate the “ambiance” into the booklets, acting as an extender to their idea and providing a further view of the concept that they wish to deliver with their music.

​One of the first and very popular forms of released music was the LP records. Born at the late 40’s, LP records became very popular and were one of the first forms of distributing music to the public. LP records were played on the phonogram. Since the records were huge, most of the “cases” were done with thick, square paper that was slightly bigger that the record itself. The case would sometimes have a pocket, where the records would be slipped on. The insides of the albums differ from album to album. Some don’t open and have the pocket on the side where the record would be. Others would have pages or photography or artwork with the records place in a pocket somewhere in the middle pages. LP albums don’t usually have many pages, since the booklet is already big enough, a lot of information can fit in one page. Most of the time the credits for the records were placed on the backside of the album.

​The next form of capturing music would be the cassette tape, which are much smaller and portable than the LP albums, but slightly bulky. Although cassettes were innovative for their smaller stature, their booklets were not as complex as those of their previous relative. Cassettes booklets aren’t really “books” to begin with. They are a long, thin sheet of paper that is folded various times. The inside of the sheet would contain the lyric or credits from the album. Sometime, excerpts written by the artist fill those pages. The outside section would have the photography that represents the album, though if necessary, those too, are filled with lyrics or writings. Aesthetically, cassettes did not look as appealing as LP albums, but their portability proved to make them popular enough not to replace LP, but proved to be popular for those who own cassette players and became a more modern look for music collectors.

​CD’s would become the successor of cassettes tapes. Having a slow rise due to its different technology, it quickly dominated over cassettes and is still being used to this date. CD booklets offer the portability that cassettes had, but with the detail and freedom that LP albums had. Depending on the success of the band will often depend on the effort the booklet will go through. Contents can range from photography of the musicians or artwork depicting the concept of the music or gimmick that the album has to promote the music. As with its previous ancestors, the CD booklets tend to hold the official lyrics of the music as well as the credits for who was involved with the production. The booklets are usually stapled right down the middle and are printed back to back, having a glossy finish or a slightly rough texture. A secondary form of CD booklets and one that has become popular since the 2010’s, was a more plastic, folded form. The booklets would either be part of the case or remain the same, simply slid inside one of the pockets, where the actual music would also be placed.

​With the rise of digital downloads, physical versions of music are becoming a dying trend. The only art that can be seen with music nowadays is the album cover, seen next to the name of the band when their song is played. However, CD’s aren’t doomed to disappear too easily. It is still the main form of physical distribution and just like LP albums, people would collect them and stash them in their shelves, displaying their musical collection, mainly for looks, while the actual music is stored in their computers or other listening devices. This would mean that efforts to make an actual booklet will be slim, becoming much more simplified or completely absent from an album.

I find that none of these technologies offered the same artistic options that LPs had. Obviously the larger size of LPs allowed for more information, photos, lyrics, etc. I never found the booklets used with CDs to be as interesting. I recently went shopping for a CD or DVD spindle and didn't find much selection. I usually doubt anything a saleperson tells me since most are clueless. I was told that most people stream music or download movies on their computers these days so CDs and DVDs are becoming obsolete. I don't know if that is the real reason, but just a few years ago, I could find at least a dozen brands of CDs and DVDs, now its mostly Memorex or the store brand.

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Elayne Drury

12/2/2015 05:43:56 pm

Album books are an art form I hadn't given much thought too, but its interesting to think about their development. With the advent of iTunes, not only are people not buying physical CDs, but they're often not buying whole albums, just a few select songs from certain artists, and I'm sure that would contribute to the decline of album booklets as an art form.

Occasionally when I buy a digital album, it comes with a digital album booklet, and I would like to see more musicians really embrace the format of a digital booklet. You could do so much with information and interactivity and art with a digital booklet that I haven't quite seen anyone do yet.

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Maryanna H

12/2/2015 07:08:35 pm

Hi Gabe,

What an interesting and overlooked topic! It's a shame that this form of art is dying, especially since this art ends up being really beautiful. In addition, I feel as though this decline could negatively impact the marketability and income of bands and artists. For example, sometimes people who aren't even a fan of the artists may end up buying merchandise with the album cover art. I know some people who bought hoodies with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album cover on it without ever listening to a single song. They just bought it because the artwork became part of our pop culture and they thought it was cool. With less artwork, it'll become harder for things like this to happen.
What do you think will become of this artwork if physical albums become nearly nonexistent or completely nonexistent? My guess is that there might be artwork on a page in which you could download songs. If that were to happen, I don't think it would make as much as an impact on me than having a physical piece of artwork. There's just something about having a tangible item that makes a piece of work much more beautiful than a digital one.
Great post!

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Nikki Villatoro

12/3/2015 10:01:20 pm

Cover Arts are definitely their own art form, I'm so happy to read this post! I definitely am one of those people who refuses to buy albums/lp/ep's just because there's something better about having the physical copy. Not only just being able to have it in your hand, but when you receive it digitally, you don't get all the artwork that comes along with it and that's the beauty– that's the artist.
One wonderful thing I learned through Heather was about Bruce Licher, his Discfolio Packaging are so elegant.

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Ashlyn Harrop

12/3/2015 10:10:50 pm

As a Graphic Design major and music lover, I am a huge fan of good packaging and presentation! It truly does make the difference between an individual buying or not buying a product. There is something magical about owning the physical copy of a CD, and it's unfortunate that digital downloading is replacing this.

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Christine Beatty

12/3/2015 11:01:33 pm

I would never have thought of this topic! So glad you brought it to light and recognition as I really think album booklets and covers offer such beauty and artistic opportunity. Over the summer I went through a whole bunch of CDs and got rid of a lot of the cases, but I kept a bunch of the booklets, and even some of the cases were too pretty to toss aside. I bet your work would be really great and interesting applied to exploring this concept! Interesting read!